CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1954/07/22

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02026949
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: August 20, 2019
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2019
• Publication Date: July 22, 1954

r Approved for Release: 2019/08/13 CO2026949,07
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3.3(h)(2)
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22 Iuly 1954
Copy No. 80
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
DOCUMENT NO. �=.;r0
NO CHANGE IN CLASS.
C1 DECLASSIFIED
CLASS. CHANGED TO: TS S C
NEXT REVIEW DATE: AP O1
AUTH: HR 70-2
REVIEWE
Office of Current Intelligence
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
T OPSE'
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SUMMARY
FAR EAST
1. Eight more IL-28 jet bombers to be ferried to China (page 3).
SOUTHEAST ASIA
2. Dislodging Viet Minh irregulars south of truce line will be
formidable task (page 3).
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
3. Saudi minister urges firm stand on Onassis agreement (page 4).
4. Israeli defense minister advocates tough policies (page 5).
WESTERN EUROPE
5. West German Social Democrats may back third force line
(page 5).
* * * *
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FAR EAST
1. Eight more IL-28 jet bombers to be ferried to China:
These apparently are the first jet bombers
to be sent to China since November 1953.
Comment: These planes would raise to
about 140 the total number of jet bombers available to the Peiping regime,
23 of which would belong to naval air units.
Assignment of additional jet bombers to naval
units would fit an apparent Sino-Soviet plan to strengthen and expand
Chinese Communist naval aviation--a plan already partly implemented
by the recent activation in North China of a second flight training school
for the navy.
Meanwhile, the 80 piston-engine fighters
and bombers of Peiping's two naval air divisions, both based in East
China have been assuming a more active role in air operations off the
coast. Torpedo bombing training has been intensified, and fighter planes
have successfully engaged Chinese Nationalist planes on several occa-
sions in the past three months.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
2. Dislodging Viet Minh irregulars south of truce line will be formidable
task:
The existence of a Viet Minh military and
administrative establishment along a 310-
mile coastal strip south of Tourane will
present a formidable obstacle to efforts by
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the Vietnam government to assert its authority over the non-Communist
portion of Vietnam, according to the vice governor of central Vietnam.
He points out that this area has been completely controlled by the Viet
Minh for ten years. He is also frankly dubious that his 5,000-man
guerrilla force can eliminate Viet Minh irregulars, who will continue
to terrorize village authorities.
Comment: Present Vietnamese security
forces are inadequate to the task of clearing Viet Minh irregular units
in non-Communist Vietnam. Even the establishment of a strong govern-
ment in non-Communist Vietnam--the first necessary step--would meet
formidable obstacles prior to the holding of elections in July 1956, as
called for in the cease-fire agreement.
NEAR EAST - AFRICA
3. Saudi minister urges firm stand on Onassis agreement:
Comment: According to the Onassis agree-
ment, the Saudi government is pledged to give full legal support to
implementation of the arrangement. ARAMCO, on the other hand, has
indicated that it will refuse to comply with clauses of the agreement
which contravene the company's exclusive concessionary right to trans-
port Saudi oil.
They exert considerable influence on King Saud and, if they
can persuade him to insist on implementation of the agreement without
modification, a serious crisis in American-Saudi relations will probably
result.
-4-
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4. Israeli defense minister advocates tough policies:
Minister of Defense Lavon, in a two-hour
off-the-record discussion with news corre-
spondents on 19 july, said Israel's policies
must include: (1) building up the country's
military strength, resisting any measures by Western powers which
would increase Arab military strength, and (3) continuing military re-
taliation for Arab border violations.
Lavon said that the present borders between
Israel and the Arab states are irrational; he believes that they should
not be regarded as unchangeable, although the Israeli government has
no present intention of changing them by force. He hinted that the bor-
der armistice agreement with Egypt may become invalid if British
troops are withdrawn from the Suez base.
Comment: Lavon exerts considerable
influence in the government. His raising of frontier questions could
inject explosive elements into the Palestine situation.
WESTERN EUROPE
5. West German Social Democrats may back third force line:
Erich 011enhauer, chairman of the West
German Social Democratic Party, plans to
introduce a resolution at his party's current
congress calling for a national foreign policy
supporting all meas rps ripsionpri n umaIrchrt hrbth tha AmPri2fl and
Soviet power blocs,
011enhauer feels that a German contribution
to Western defense would not improve West German security, and that
security can be obtained only by a weakening of the two power blocs.
He reportedly will demand that European Socialists collaborate closely
with British Commonwealth Socialists, Indian prime minister Nehru,
and African peoples seeking independence.
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Comment While the Social Democratic
congress will probably sanction some form of West German rearmament
outside EDC, a distinct party trend toward neutralism has apparently
been given impetus both by diminishing West German faith in EDC and
by decreasing fear of Soviet aggression.
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